Samburu National Reserve

Samburu National Reserve is made up of scrubby, open bush land and savanna, with the fringing riverine forest of acacias and large doum palms extending along the edge of the Ewaso Ng’iro river. This river is the heart of the park, as it not only makes it a beautiful and very photogenic environ (contrasting against the bright and dry red soil), but also attracts a diversity of wildlife all year round.

A range of animals come down to the river to drink and cool off, and with crocodiles and hippos hiding in the shallow sand banks, surprises always await! Samburu National Reserve also has a particularly high elephant populations, and big families of them too! This is because the park is a migratory corridor that herds use daily, moving between Laikipia, Samburu and Mount Kenya for food, mating and minerals. The Mount Kenya Trust have seen huge success in its number of elephants using both the human-made and natural areas of the migratory corridor, dramatically reducing human-elephant conflict.

Do see our best camps & lodges in Samburu National Reserve picks for 2026/27 on this page.

Shaba is a much smaller park than it neighbour, Samburu, but is also, to intents and purposes, yet to really be discovered. Featuring a range of topographies, open grassland, swamp, river gullies and Shaba Hill in the centre, Shaba attracts a wide range of game species.

Particularly good for elephant, leopard and sightings of the rare striped hyena, it is certainly one of the undiscovered gems of Kenya. There are, currently, only a couple of lodges in the park which is all the more reason to head up here in our view!

Do see our best camps & lodges in Samburu National Reserve picks for 2026/27 on this page.

As with most of Kenya, the best months for the bigger safari animals is during the dry seasons between June and November and again from January to March when the animals have to converge along the Ewaso Ng’iro river front.

For the birders out there, the early year months from December through to May are especially rewarding with migratory species almost doubling the sightings.

Do see our interactive best time to visit Samburu National Reserve guide on this page as well as on our parent guide to kenya page for more in-depth information on when to go.

Or call us on +44 1525 840 149. That’s what we’re here for.

As much as AI has changed the way we all approach our lives, there is still no substitute for picking up the phone and having a chat through the options with one of us on USA +1-917-336-2937

This allows us to completely tailor the property choices, costs and itinerary length to your needs…but we also understand that this is not always possible with the busy lives we all lead.

With this in mind, we have also put together a safari finder tool that should help you to narrow down the initial stages at which point we can jump in to “round off the edges” as it were.

Alternatively please feel free to › send us an email with your timings, group size and rough likes and dislikes and we can get the ball rolling.

As much as AI has changed the way we all approach our lives, there is still no substitute for picking up the phone and having a chat through the options with one of us on USA +1-917-336-2937

This allows us to completely tailor the property choices, costs and itinerary length to your needs…but we also understand that this is not always possible with the busy lives we all lead.

With this in mind, we have also put together a safari finder tool that should help you to narrow down the initial stages at which point we can jump in to “round off the edges” as it were.

Alternatively please feel free to › send us an email with your timings, group size and rough likes and dislikes and we can get the ball rolling.